Have you guys ever experienced situations when you drop down a couple gears and floor the pedal, but the vehicle doesn't go anywhere? In one particular situation, I was on the highway at about 60 mph and just could not get the car to accelerate. I'd take it out of 'D' down to 3rd/4th and wide open throttle, and nothing. 60...61...62...63 mph. It just slooowly goes through the RPM range like it has zero power. You can hear the engine rev and everything, it just feels like there is zero ignition advance. I am betting this is traction control ruining the fun because of how cold it is here (and the fact I got my skinnier snow tires on), but damn I could run faster than the car when it does this.

 

Does the traction control warning light flash on?

 

No, no traction control warning light.

 

sounds like it is not traction control have no problems like that at all.

 

Have you tried just flooring it and letting the transmission kick down on its own? If so, does it hesitate then as well? Sometimes it requires a "heavy" foot to get past a detent in the accelerator pedal.

 

I've been able to replicate this several times so far. And yes, the transmission downshifts as normal in these conditions. I will try with traction control switched off to see if it has any difference.

 

I've never had a problem with mine downshifting at the speed you are speaking of (60).

If I down shift to 4th and then hit the gas it drops all the way to 3rd and really hammers me in my seat.

I've gotten to the point that I just let the car do the work shifting. I only shift now to slow down.

 

It sounds more like an intercooler pump problem than the tranny. If the IC pump is not working correctly, you'll have no boost from the super charger. I would think it would accelerate better at highway speeds if you just eased into the pedal. If you have no boost, the computer will cut the fuel and cut the timing and then the only way you're going anywhere is very slowly.

Just my thoughts!!

 

That sounds about right, The Toy. I was able to replicate it even at 30 mph, but it is intermittent. Sometimes it does this, other times the car works perfectly.

 

Ryan,
The IC pump failing is a know problem with this engine. Just spend some time reading the boards at MBworld and you'll see that they talk about replacing the pump once the car has 40-60k miles on it. Since you're still under warranty, just take it to the dealer and have them check it out. If you're out of warranty then I'd look at replacing the pump with the Ford Lightning IC pump. It's definitely the first place that I'd look to fixing your problem.
Let us know what you find.

John

 

Car is going in the shop in a week to have this looked at. I did some testing and it has nothing to do with traction control or anything like that. The vehicle just sometimes will not give ANY acceleration what-so-ever. I almost had a heart attack when it did this in merging traffic an hour ago.

 

The tech is "going to have to check everything." Grrr... I keep telling them it is most likely the intercooler pump since my vehicle's symptoms are exactly alike all of the SRT-6's and SLK32's with the problem.

 

It sounds like throttle response lag...We get that also in our SRT8's...Especially when at that high of speed you take it out of drive and autostick it...The system takes some time to adjust to the changes...Sometime we are faster than our computers...BUT from your description it seems like you left your foot in it and yet it still has that lag, that sounds like a PCM/TCM issue...Can this be reproduced regularly? If so then definitely get it looked at.